1Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran, Islamic Republic of2University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Molecular Sciences, Memphis, USA
Objective: Curcuma longa is a traditional Chinese and Indian herbal medicine, which has been used to treat the symptoms of mental stress. As the major pigment in the rhizome of curcuma longa, curcumin has anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-convulsant activities. Exposure to the repetitive stress accelerates seizure activity in various model of epilepsy. Hence, we hypothesized that curcumin may ameliorate the effect of chronic stress on pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced seizure activity in rats.

Methods: We assessed whether chronic or acute curcumin treatment (20 mg/kg, i.p.) affects PTZ (60 mg/kg. i.p.)-induced seizure activity in a chronic restraint stress (14 days, 2 h/day) model in rats. The latency to, and the duration of myoclonic jerk rearing (stage 3) and generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS), the latency to, and the number of myoclonic jerks as well as the maximum seizure severity score were observed for a 30 min period after PTZ injection.

Results: We found that exposure to chronic stress prior to PTZ administration increased the duration of GTCS in animals, which could be reversed by chronic pre-administration of curcumin. In addition, curcumin pre-treatment alleviates the PTZ-induced seizure activity, increased the myoclonic jerks latency, decreased the duration of GTCS, and also decreased the severity of seizure as determined by seizure severity score.

However, acute administration of curcumin (20 mg/kg, i.p.) 30 min before PTZ had no significant effect on the PTZ-induced seizure under stressful situation.

Conclusion: Chronic but not acute curcumin is effective in management of seizure activity associated with daily stress in epileptic individuals.